Lest you thought that Inception was going to change things overnight, or that studio execs really are going to start buying original ideas in droves, here comes news of a Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots movie to prove that this remains the summer of our cinematic discontent. Read More »

Yasutaka Tsutsui‘s novel Paprika has already been adapted into animation by Satoshi Kon, but back in August of last year it was announced that a live-action feature version would be directed by Wolfgang Peterson. Now Peterson has issued a brief update on the adaptation, and he sounds like he’s planning for it to be big, if nothing else. Read More »

Previously adapted into a truly splendid feature by anime master Satoshi Kon, Yasutaka Tsutsui’s serialized novel Paprika seems set for the big screen again. This time round, we can expect a live action adaptation by Wolfgang Peterson, the perpetrator of Air Force One and Outbreak.

The novel’s story is a chase mystery revolving around a new technology that allows people to enter one another’s dreams, so there’s little wonder that Moviehole (via Firstshowing) invoke the director’s NeverEnding Story in their rumor-starting piece. What I don’t quite get is their assertion that this project would be Petersen “ostensibly out to court the youngsters again.” I guess they don’t really know the project at all. Is psychotherapy and psychosexual nightmare manipulation typically the stuff of kiddie fare? Kon’s film is definitely an adult picture.

When we last heard about the Ender’s Game movie, it wasn’t exactly great news: Wolfgang Peterson was reportedly off the project in April 2008. Now comes word from the LA Times (via Chud and Firstshowing) that the movie won’t be happening at all. In a profile to help card promote the November release of his new book, Ender in Exile, the Times offhandedly revealed that the movie project was terminated in November 2008. According to Card he “was not interested in a ‘tough-hero action film’ and refuses to condescend to green-screen Hollywood. Card imagines a ‘film where the human relationships are absolutely essential — an honest presentation of the story.'”

I’m honestly not too saddened by this news. Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game was one of my favorite books in high school, and probably still remains my favorite science fiction story of all time. If I read it today, I might find that time has changed my opinion, but from what I remember, it had touching moments about the struggles of adolescence and precociousness, while simultaneously weaving in a thrilling tale of alien invasion. Capturing all of these elements in a successful film, while retaining the book’s spirit, would have been a daunting challenge to say the least. In fact, according to the LA Times article, Card has struggled with a film adaptation of Ender’s Game for two decades.Maybe some books are just “unfilmable.”